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Titan Smiles Back
Pasadena, Calif. (SPX) Feb 21, 2006 The Cassini spacecraft's latest infrared view of Saturn's giant moon shows the bright, crescent-shaped feature Hotei arcus (to the right of center), which mission scientists have nicknamed "the Smile." The view centers on the bright region called Xanadu. Above center is the large crater Menrva, which is surrounded by darker material. North on Titan (which is 5,150 kilometers, or 3,200 miles in diameter) is up and rotated 30 degrees to the left. Cassini captured the image with its narrow-angle camera on Jan. 13, 2006, using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 938 nanometers. It acquired the image at a distance of approximately 1.3 million kilometers (800,000 miles) from Titan's surface and at a Sun-Titan-spacecraft phase, or angle, of 41 degrees. Image scale is 7 kilometers (5 miles) per pixel. The spacecraft is following a trajectory that will bring it approximately 1,800 kilometers (1,100 miles) from Titan's cloudtops on Feb. 27. In all Cassini is scheduled to fly past the moon 13 times during 2006. Community Email This Article Comment On This Article Related Links Cassini Cassini Images Explore The Ring World of Saturn and her moons Jupiter and its Moons The million outer planets of a star called Sol News Flash at Mercury
Titan Reveals New Complexities
Pasadena CA (SPX) Feb 15, 2006This new view of Titan reveals structure in the moon's complex atmosphere. The geometry of the Cassini spacecraft's view of Titan during this flyby was similar to that of Voyager 1's pass in 1980. |
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